TPP

Members of the DPP, NPP, and TPP held a joint press conference earlier this week, calling for stronger labor protections for young workers. Participants included DPP legislator Wu Yu-chin, NPP legislator Claire Wang, and TPP legislator Lai Hsiang-ling. The press conference was organized by the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare... Read More

In examining many of the prominent male politicians playing important roles in 2020 elections, a striking commonality is their frequent overt displays of misogyny, racism, and homophobia. This is true of individuals including but not limited to Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu, the KMT’s presidential candidate, his running mate Simon Chang, KMT chair Wu Den-yih, and Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, who is not running but whose Taiwan People’s Party will be fielding a number of legislative candidates in 2020 elections... Read More

As an unorthodox politician who originally campaigned in 2014 with the claim that he was a regular person that sought to enter politics, rather than a slick and polished member of the political establishment, Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je has established a reputation for gaffes over the years. It may not be surprising that Ko has once again provoked ire with a number of recent comments... Read More

An abortive alliance between Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, former KMT majority speaker Wang Jinpyng, and FoxConn CEO Terry Gou seems to have sputtered out, following comments by Ko in which he denigrated the other two before a planned meeting that was to take place last Sunday. Although unlikely, talk is also on the rise of the KMT potentially replacing Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu as its presidential candidate in 2020 elections, with the KMT demonstrating some unusual splits regarding Han... Read More

Reports that Donald Trump intends to reverse course on the TPP are vaguely humorous. Namely, withdrawing from the agreement was not only a key campaign promise of Trump’s but literally one of Trump’s first actions in office. But there will no doubt be those that claim that the Trump administration's reversal is the Trump administration engaging in high-risk negotiation tactics rather than simple incoherency... Read More

The strange saga of the TPP in the Trump era continues, with American president Donald Trump now suggesting that America may reenter the deal if presented with more favorable terms despite that Trump ran on a campaign promise to withdraw from the deal and did so three days into the start of his term... Read More

With the signing of Trump’s executive order regarding the United States’s withdrawal from Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, US president Donald Trump brought an end to US involvement in the controversial trade deal that would have opened markets between the US and many countries in the Asia Pacific,with the notable exception of China. What now for Taiwan, which sought admission to the trade deal?... Read More

About New Bloom

New Bloom is an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific, founded in Taiwan in 2014 in the wake of the Sunflower Movement. We seek to put local voices in touch with international discourse, beginning with Taiwan.